Rock Star Still Hasn't Found the African Aid He's Looking For

By CELIA W. DUGGER

Published: May 15, 2007

With less than a month to go before the leaders of the Group of 8 nations gather at a Baltic Sea resort in Germany for their annual summit meeting, Bono, the rock star and antipoverty campaigner who helped sweet-talk, cajole and otherwise persuade them to make commitments to double aid to Africa, says most of them have fallen behind on their promise.

Italy, France and Germany have what the report by Bono's advocacy group, DATA, called ''a particular crisis of credibility.'' Bono said in a telephone interview yesterday that their failure to increase aid has been masked behind artificially high debt-relief write-offs.

Excluding debt relief and adjusting for inflation, DATA, which stands for Debt, AIDS, Trade, Africa, calculates that Germany's aid to Africa has grown only 2 percent since 2004, France's has fallen 1 percent and Italy's has decreased 30 percent.

France praised the group's detailed report in a statement, but disagreed with its exclusion of debt relief. ''The freeing up of resources previously dedicated to debt service allows developing countries to increase spending to reduce poverty,'' it said.

Spokesmen for Germany and Italy in Washington said yesterday that they would reserve comment until the report is formally released at a news conference in Berlin today.

In its country-by-country analysis of aid to Africa, DATA found that the seven wealthy nations in the G-8 -- the United States, Britain, Germany, France, Italy, Canada and Japan (the other member is Russia) -- have increased aid by less than half of what would be expected to reach the goal they set in 2005 to double aid to Africa by 2010.

Japan and Britain have increased aid enough since 2004 -- 62 percent and 40 percent, respectively -- to be on the right path to achieving the goal, DATA said. It said the United States had fallen behind in 2006, but seems to have gotten back on track since the new Congress, controlled by Democrats, adopted a 2007 budget that gave President Bush even more than he requested for Africa -- at least an extra $1 billion, mostly to fight AIDS and malaria.

''We're on a trajectory to exceed the target laid out by the president in Gleneagles,'' the Scottish golf resort where the G-8 met in 2005, said Bobby Pittman, a special assistant to the president and senior director for African affairs at the National Security Council.

Canada has increased aid 25 percent since 2004, still not at a rate that would double aid by 2010, DATA said. Russia, which has canceled a large amount of debt owed by African countries, did not pledge in 2005 to double its aid to Africa.

The group's report focuses on G-8 aid to Africa, but its findings are broadly consistent with overall patterns of giving described last month by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, based on figures provided by 22 donor nations that are its members. The total aid to developing countries -- $104 billion -- in 2006 was 5 percent below the 2005 level, the O.E.C.D. found. Aid to Africa grew 23 percent, but once debt relief to Nigeria was subtracted, it rose only 2 percent.

Richard Manning, chairman of the organization's development assistance committee, said that he was surprised that aid to Africa other than debt relief grew so slowly -- and noted that such aid would have to rise at a faster pace to double aid to Africa by 2010. ''I would have thought in the general scheme of things, donors would be putting more aid on the table,'' he said.

The economic development organization allows donor nations to write off the full face value of debt relief to poor nations in the span of a year or two, though often only a portion of the debt would have been repaid, and only over a long period of time.

Some wealthy nations, in addition to France, are likely to object to DATA's decision not to count debt relief in its calculations. The group replies that rich nations overstate the real value of debt relief to poor countries. It notes that by 2010, when aid to Africa is supposed to reach $50 billion a year, debt relief will have largely been accounted for and will no longer substantively bolster the amount of aid each country provides.

Despite the tough talk in its report, Bono, who has cultivated the rich world's leading politicians for years, expressed empathy for the laggards in Europe. He has already met with the German chancellor, Angela Merkel, the host for this year's meeting, who he said is very conscious that this is a moment when the Group of 8 will be watching to see whether Germany plays a leadership role on poverty.

Of Italy's prime minister, Romano Prodi, Bono said: ''He's a beautiful man, but he's broke. I don't know what to do about Italy.''

Bono said that President Jacques Chirac of France had spoken eloquently of the need to support Africa, though he added that France had not yet come through with the resources. Nicolas Sarkozy, the president-elect, has requested a meeting, ''which is very flattering,'' Bono said.

Bono said rising political support in Britain and the United States for fighting African poverty has helped strengthen the hand of those who have sought increasing aid budgets.

''I want to grow the social movement,'' he said. ''It's no coincidence that in the countries where churches and students are out on the streets -- that's where the numbers are getting better.''

Chart: ''Falling Behind on a Commitment to Double Aid''
In order to increase aid to sub-Saharan Africa by $25 billion by 2010, as promised by seven of the Group of 8 countries in 2005, many major donors will need to increase giving sharply. Russia did not make the pledge.